Table 4.

Challenges and solutions to manage visible information identified by pharmacists

Challenges with the space surrounding pharmacy counters, such as consumers being able to observe prescriptions or other products being sold	…Sometimes … I'm talking about blood pressure medication, other people are standing and have a look on the box, so you can't 100% keep it 100% private because you're going to take it out and on the box they can see atenolol is for the blood pressure, so they know this customer has blood pressure… P20
Measures to prevent consumers from seeing other consumers’ dispensed products included asking consumers to sign beforehand and putting the medicines in a bag before handing it to the consumer	…Scripts are treated carefully; like sometimes we try to get the patient to sign it, if they've signed it beforehand, to make sure they're filed away before they're brought out to avoid that. Sort of more discrete medications like DDs [dangerous drugs], dexamphetamines, for example or Viagra® [used for erectile dysfunction], things like that, we put in a bag before it's handed out and then we do have this counselling area for privacy and we've also got the partition section at the end of the counter for privacy as well… P11
Visibility of computer screens was mentioned as an aspect that requires staff awareness, with some of the pharmacists commenting on the use of ‘wait screen’ functions or screen savers in‐between tasks. One pharmacist highlighted the situation when consumers come within close proximity of private information displayed on computer screens	…people walk right to here (entrance to dispensary/consulting room) and I'm like ‘I'm really sorry, but can you just step back?’ because people don't realise that they can see, you know, they can look at the computer screen… P03